How to Use assail in a Sentence

assail

verb
  • More often than not weakness assailed him, and he was forced to turn back.
    — Longreads, 13 July 2017
  • Democrats have assailed the law as a historic transfer of wealth to the rich from the poor.
    — Miriam Waldvogel, The Hill, 20 July 2025
  • The notes that come out of his career never assail your ears; the caress them.
    — Chuck Yarborough, cleveland.com, 8 Aug. 2019
  • Cup and straw both had to be clean to assure no germs would assail the children (or the able-bodied men).
    — Alexis C. Madrigal, The Atlantic, 21 June 2018
  • And many activists assail the firm for owning huge stakes in oil and gas companies.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 1 Dec. 2020
  • Yet the candidates have spent much of their time assailing each other.
    — Arian Campo-Flores, WSJ, 4 Nov. 2018
  • The pregnancy was planned, but instead of being pleased, doubts and fears assailed me.
    — Amy Dickinson, Washington Post, 29 Feb. 2024
  • Davis was assailed online in what became one of the few controversies of the games.
    — Beth Harris, Houston Chronicle, 23 Feb. 2018
  • Many assailed the idea of such massive state intervention and the idea was quickly squashed.
    — The Economist, 28 Mar. 2018
  • Roberts once signed on to a Kagan dissent that assailed the shadow docket.
    — Ken B. Morales, ProPublica, 1 July 2026
  • Raman also assailed Bass over the fire, the worst in the city’s history.
    — David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, 7 May 2026
  • The change came after Trump assailed the judge’s daughter and made false claims about her on social media.
    — Michael R. Sisak, Fortune, 6 May 2024
  • Trump had assailed Bezos and his companies during his first term.
    — Francesca Chambers, USA Today, 30 Apr. 2025
  • Dazed and cut off from the ranks behind them, the men at the front were promptly assailed by another gang barrelling down to the beach.
    — The Economist, 19 Oct. 2019
  • Those who like to assail corporate owners that don’t have the backs of their journalists just got a fresh and compelling case in point.
    — Washington Post, 9 May 2022
  • In 2018, that monopoly was assailed by signs and portents.
    — Literary Hub, 18 May 2026
  • And Trump on Tuesday night publicly assailed the judge handling Stone's case.
    — Joel Mathis, TheWeek, 12 Feb. 2020
  • And the whirr of electric motors doesn’t assail your ears like the cacophony of combustion.
    — Tim Pitt, Robb Report, 30 Nov. 2022
  • Opponents of the plan continue to assail its fairness and the potential costs.
    — Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Anchorage Daily News, 27 Aug. 2022
  • In his first address since the weekend’s events, Putin assailed those responsible for the revolt.
    — Elizabeth Robinson, NBC News, 27 June 2023
  • And the Republicans who assailed it have so far been unable to come up with an alternative.
    — Jess Bidgood, BostonGlobe.com, 18 July 2019
  • Ekulona’s Julie is assailed as much by Hedda’s slights as by her indifference.
    — Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Trump and allies have continued to assail Pence for his refusal to toss out electoral votes that favored Biden.
    — Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2023
  • Critics have long assailed the Supreme Court’s practices on this issue as both opaque and inconsistent.
    — Justin Elliott, Joshua Kaplan and Alex Mierjeski, Anchorage Daily News, 22 June 2023
  • Drone and missile attacks continue to assail gulf states, threatening to draw more players into the conflict.
    — Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2026
  • The move was ridiculed by lawyers outside Paul Weiss, and more than 140 alums of the firm signed a letter assailing it as well.
    — Meg Kinnard, Los Angeles Times, 5 Feb. 2026
  • On this front, the student activists and academics whom conservatives routinely assail are way ahead of Brooks and the rest.
    — Osita Nwanevu, Slate Magazine, 13 July 2017
  • The pulse of that year’s song of the summer will course its way to you as quickly as the humidity assails those of us in the swampy dredges of New York.
    — Hannah Giorgis, The Atlantic, 29 May 2018
  • That helps when defending a city like Kyiv, which has been assailed by Russian drones and missiles approaching from the north, east, and south.
    — Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 23 June 2023
  • Our eyes are increasingly assailed by ultra-bright billboard ads, dazzling street lights, and glowing personal screens.
    — Matt Fuchs, Time, 4 Aug. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'assail.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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